Adelante Moving Forward
by Windwhistles
Summary: Leah Clearwater never imprinted, but she lived a life that she knew was hers and on her own terms. In some ways, she was the happiest. Leah/OC non-vampire, non-werewolf partner . Please R&R.
1. Chapter 1

**Disclaimer: I don't own anything in the Twilight world. **

**Summary**

**Leah Clearwater never imprinted, but her life was far from unhappy. On the contrary, she considered herself the happiest of them all for she had been able to do what none of the others had … live a life that was hers on her own terms. Leah/OC eventually (non-vampire, non-werewolf).**

**Chapter One**

**Forks, ten years after the end of **_**Breaking Dawn**_

The doe was picking daintily at the blades of grass in the clearing, almost savoring every bite. Only the keenest of eyes could see twitching of the sensitive ears always on alert. I smiled grimly; her senses would fail her today. Carefully, I circled closer, my feet carrying me forward soundlessly toward the blissfully ignorant animal, my mind focused on the sight and her smell in my nostrils. When it came to having and using hyper-aware senses to detect or evade others, I had no competition.

As I moved in for the strike, I suddenly felt a fast breeze move past me toward the doe. I narrowed my eyes … no way! In less than a second, the doe had been captured, but not by me.

Well, I had _almost_ no competition. There was, after all, another species which had been crafted as my prey, and their skills sometimes exceeded mine, somewhat to my frustration.

The loud growls that were heard across the clearing would probably have frightened a less hardened soul than the fiend who stood there laughing at me with warm golden eyes. Then again, one had to have a soul in order to _be_ frightened in the first place. I growled even more loudly, making my displeasure known to the monster standing across from me.

"That's unkind of you," the soulless fiend said, sounding hurt. Hah, as if he could fool me. "First I'm soulless and now I'm a monster, too. One might almost think you didn't like me."

"You _moron!_" I shouted at him mentally, letting my fury rage impotently. "Do you have any _idea_ how long I've been tracking her? Now I have to waste even _more_ time tracking another stupid animal to get some food. I swear I'm going to kill you!"

"Ah, but you'd have to catch me first, wouldn't you?" the fiend smirked, making me yearn to hit him. "Or are you confident that your – ah – _unbeatable hyper-aware senses_ are good enough to catch up?"

"Believe me, at this moment, you stand no _chance _of outrunning me, you preening, arrogant, no-good-"

"Really?"

With a roar, I halted our mental conversation, leaping at him, but he moved at the last possible moment, fleeing through the woods with me right behind him. We pounded through the forest, skirting around the trees and shrubs, leaping over hedges and sprawling, outstretched roots until I noticed the trees lightening and a familiar smell entering my nostrils. Startled, I stopped as we burst through the trees and came up against a tall white house.

The fiend had also stopped. Grinning, he held his hands up in a sign of truce, ignoring my menacing glare.

"If you think that coming here is going to make things easier, you're wrong," I informed him in a precise mental tone, stalking toward him much as I had towards the long-lost doe. "Give it up, bloodsucker."

"Easy, Leah," he cautioned. "You ought to know by now that I wouldn't have eaten -"

"Drunk!" I thought maliciously.

He rolled his eyes and acquiesced, amending his statement to: "-_drunk_ your lunch if I hadn't had a good reason."

My snarl was interrupted by the warm voice coming from the open doorway. "There you are, Leah, you've come just in time!"

I turned an inquiring head towards the speaker. I suppose my expression must have been obvious in my current form because she chuckled and gestured. "Perhaps if you're dressed more appropriately, we can tell you a little more. Alice will help you." She indicated the pixie-like being, waving at her side.

I shot her a pleading glance, and then surrendered with a sigh and padded behind Alice inside the house. The sickly sweet smell that permeated the house barely registered with me anymore. After ten years, I was only surprised that it hadn't seeped into my very pores. Entering the expensively furnished bedroom, I did a double-take at the clothes I found on the bed and rolled my eyes towards Alice. She grinned at me unrepentantly. "Let me guess!" I muttered, heading into the bathroom with a bad grace. as an expletive, hearing the tinkle of laughter from inside. "We're having a fancy dress party, and I'm Cinderella."

"I rather like the idea of being a fairy godmother." I could almost hear the grin in her voice. "Bibbidy-Bobbidy-Boo, Leah!" she exclaimed as I came out, having finished my ablutions and dressing. She turned me towards the dresser firmly. "A little more work, I think."

"No way," I said, trying to struggle with her firm grip. One would never think such a tiny person had the grip of a heavyweight boxer. I gave in with a bad grace, turning to face her and closing my eyes in resignation.

She sighed, moving her hand with featherlight motions over my face. "To listen to you and Bella, one would think you were going to be tortured."

I grinned. I couldn't help it. She sounded so put-upon and unlike herself when she was being bitter. "Don't you dare equate me with Bella," I warned her. She stuck her tongue out at me, her hand continuing to move over my features. Inhaling the powder by mistake, I sneezed. She handed me a tissue immediately and continued her ministrations.

"Here they come," she said, her hand moving even faster. "There, done."

A bare second later, there came the sound of somebody running followed by a loud pounding at the door. "Come _on_, Alice! What's taking so long?"

"We're coming, Jacob!" she snapped immediately. "Why don't you go downstairs and keep your fiance occupied rather than bothering me?"

I chuckled. With another loud bang at the door, Jacob retreated, growling under his breath.

"Take a look at yourself in the mirror," she said, turning my chair to face the my reflection. Despite the growling in my stomach, I took an extra moment to look at the woman in the glass.

"Thank you, Alice," I said as I stood up, dropping a hand on the petite pixie's shoulder. She grinned at me, reading between the lines as usual to see what I was really trying to say.

"Come on," she said, grabbing my hand from her shoulder and leading me out of the room and down the stairs in the twinkling of an eye.

"I'm still really hungry," I protested, then brightened as we headed towards the kitchen. Maybe they would feed me. Or maybe not – it was dark. Not that darkness would be a problem (hey, superior senses, remember?), but that meant no delicious food waiting to be consumed would be awaiting me.

Once upon a time, I would have (and had) thrown every morsel of food given to me by a group of vampires, but... well, I supposed, even harpies were entitled to change their minds.

As we entered the dark kitchen, the lights came on, and twelve voices called out: "HAPPY WEREWOLF DAY, LEAH!"

**A/N My author's notes will always be at the end of the chapter. This way you can skip over it if you wish and head right on to the next chapter. The Happy Werewolf day part will be explained in the next chapter. However, I wanted to say a few words about the story, and the reasons why I am writing it. **

**Leah is a fascinating character in the Twilight series, and one who, I believe, is often overlooked, not because of her story, but because of her strength. In a way she is a victim and a survivor of a crazy twist of fate which literally handed her a triple whammy: in the space of a few months (or years, I'm not sure which) she lost the man she loved, her father, and herself. It turned her from a loving, ordinary young girl with dreams into the bitter harpy we see in the Twilight series, fighting to be heard in an all-male environment. Yet, as Leah herself says, (to paraphrase) "I wasn't always the way I am now. I used to be kind of nice, you know?" How would Leah go back to being the person she was without the props she used to have? I know that a lot of people have dealt with it by having her imprint, which is interesting. I wanted to explore another option (which is not unique, by any means) in which Leah never imprints, never leaves La Push, and yet manages to regain her sense of self and lives a happy life.**

**I am also trying to hone my writing skills, so if anyone has any constructive criticism in terms of my grammar, etc., go ahead and leave it as a review. Reviews either way make me happy, flames don't. This is not my first fanfic, but I deleted others I have written because they didn't please me. Thanks for reading my story! **


	2. Chapter 2

**Disclaimer: Twilight belongs to Stephenie Meyer as do all the characters. I'm just borrowing them for the story. **

**Chapter 2**

**On the Banks of a Muddied River**

When I entered high school, I knew I would change, but I never know how great that change would be nor the things that would cause it. I suppose, in these cases, ignorance is truly bliss, for at least you have that moment to enjoy. My life didn't change all at once in seconds, but it felt like it – it felt like I'd been punched in the gut not once, not even twice, but three times.

_October 2004 – La Push Reservation_

"You have _got _to stop doing this, Sam," I said in frustration, staring at the boy in front of me as if by doing so I could transfer some sense into his head. "Everyone is talking about it. I'm worried about you, your mother is worried about you. I have no idea where you are or where you go during the day. It's as if you completely disappear. The school is going to throw you out and we're in our final year. It's just a few more months. What are you thinking of, throwing your future this way? Have you completely lost your mind?"

He sighed, and I rolled my eyes. I had lost track of the number of times we had had this conversation. "Leah," he started patiently and I held up my hand. His shoulders slumped and I closed my eyes to avoid seeing the defeat etched in his own.

"I _know_ something's going on, Sam," I said, my eyes still closed. "Tell me what it is. Help me understand it. At least, give me a clue as to how to help you through this. I love you, you love me. What am I missing in this picture?"

I felt him come close to me, his warm hand touching my face. His skin was so hot it felt like hot coal. I opened my eyes and took his hand in my own, reaching up with the other to touch his face. "I know you're not doing drugs, which, by the way, is the latest in the rumor mill" - he rolled his eyes - "but I know there's something else. What _is _it?"

"I can't tell you, Lee-Lee," he said softly. "I wish I could, but I can't. I want to tell you so badly but I can't. Please, please understand and just try to work with me here. You know I wouldn't jeopardize our future unless I had a really good reason."

"So you keep telling me," I said, sounding resigned. I looked out of the window at the wild green forest. My love for the man in front of me was every bit as strong as my love for the land under my feet. Looking back at him, I asked: "So when's the deadline set to expire so you can tell me?"

His mouth turned up at the corners. "You'll know, trust me."

As our lips met, he said softly. "I love you, Leah. More than anything."

Ten months later, Sam Uley, the boy who was the center of my life, turned his back on me as if I had never existed and fell in love with my cousin, Emily.

Two years later, on a grey and windy day, my brother and I fought. As the wind howled more loudly, our tempers grew and the heat under my skin seemed to erupt into a fire over which I had no control. I heard millions of voices and when I came back to myself, I awoke to the knowledge that my brother and I had turned into werewolves, and that my father was dead.

It felt as if I had died too. Nothing was the same. I cut my long hair short myself, shearing off long hanks of hair in ragged lengths. I threw aside everything and gave myself up to the pain flooding me until I was lost. It washed away the voice of my conscience, my ideals, my love, and everything that was Leah into a vast, muddied sea of pain. I could find no trace of myself in it, and I lashed out at the world in my isolation. I took savage delight in the cruelty and pain I inflicted on others. Now they would know, now they would feel. It was the only way I could survive.

My pack brothers despised me; the love of my life despised me; and my friends avoided me as if I had the plague. Everyone was wishing me away even as I stood before them, but despite all my efforts to leave, I found myself running the same routine over and over again like a bad dream.

The first signs of hope came when Jacob Black, my fellow pack brother, assumed his place as the Alpha and broke away from us. Of course, he did so to protect the bloodsuckers who had, by their very existence, been responsible for all the upheavals in my life. Then again, beggars can't be choosers. That night, I finally tasted freedom, and the lure of it drew me away and gave me the space I had so desperately needed. I could feel the waters ebb every day and I found myself able to breathe again. I found myself able to think and reason.

Of course, Jacob eventually succumbed to the charms of the vampire hybrid. In true fanfiction style, he now had everything he wanted plus more. I, however, was not so thrilled about the proximity to the Cullen bloodsuckers. I resented them fiercely for their existence, their unnatural beauty and their love for each other. Most of all, I resented them for having freedom – the freedom to come and go as they chose, the freedom to choose their partner, to choose anything. I wanted to choose too, but I was terrified. I wanted to be Leah again, laughing and joking, smiling without a care in the world. I wanted to be beautiful again, but I didn't know if I could. After all, it wasn't as though as if I were a woman anymore.

I had become used to my pack brothers shrugging off my thoughts and feelings without any problems. I knew they didn't care, and I foolishly assumed that nobody would care. It seemed ironic that the people who reached me in the end were the very people I so despised. It was not Edward who did so, although I suspect he had a hand in starting the whole process. To our mutual surprise, I made friends with Rosalie Cullen.

Rosalie clung to beauty as if it were her very identity. She could not stand the idea of something around her not being beautiful. A few weeks after the big vampire showdown with the Volturi (where Bella finally did something useful), I went into the garage where she was working with the vague idea of driving somewhere.

"Do you have an allergy to beauty products?" she asked suddenly while I was deciding between the Volvo and the Aston Martin (Edward and Bella had gone hunting with Renesmee and Jacob).

I was taken aback. "I beg your pardon?" I asked.

She glanced at me, her golden eyes considering and her head tilted to one side. The light from the door made her golden locks shine. Even dressed in jumpers and with grease on her cheek, she managed to put a supermodel to shame.

"I asked you if you were allergic to beauty products," she said.

"No, I don't," I replied, a little confused. "Why would you ask that anyway?"

"You seem to shun anything remotely feminine so I was wondering if there was a reason for it," she said.

I snorted, my lips twisting to one side. "I'm a werewolf. There's no time for me to be _girly_"

To my amusement, the ladylike Rosalie snorted right back. "Nevertheless, you _are_ a girl. Why are you so ashamed of it?"

"What makes you think _that?_" I asked , then added fiercely, "Just because I don't wear silk underwear and cake make-up all over my face doesn't make less a girl than you are."

Rosalie rolled her eyes and got to her feet. "That isn't the reason I asked, Leah. If that were the case, Bella's not exactly the epitome of girlishness either. Have you noticed _her_ aversion to sheer girliness?"

I _had_ noticed. I had also noticed Alice's disappointed reaction toBella's obstinate refusal to wear the designer skirts and dresses that were in the latter's enormous dressing room.

"Why are you suddenly so interested?" I asked Rosalie more mildly.

She approached the front of the car, and perched herself on the hood. She looked at me deliberately and then opened her mouth. "I know how you feel, Leah," she said steadily. "I want to be normal, too, just like everyone else."

I opened my mouth to refute her arguments, but her whipped up and she glared at me so fiercely that I almost retreated.; I shut my mouth and eyed the ground again resentfully. "What's your point?"

"When I first woke up in this condition, I hated everything about it. Everything that had brought me to that point I hated, and I hung desperately on to whatever humanity I could find. I _know_ how you feel in a way the others can't really understand. They can't understand why I long so desperately to be human, but you do, don't you, Leah?"

I nodded mutely, watching her impassioned movements. It was something I had never considered before; I had been so caught up in my own pain, our pack's pain, that I had never considered what these vampires went through themselves. Rosalie and I shared the same pain, as I had once told Jacob, of being genetic dead-ends. We had everything most women wanted, eternal youth and beauty, but we still yearned to have all those ordinary dreams that women generally lived. What use was eternal youth and beauty when day after day brought the same things.

"At least you have Emmett," I told her. "Unlike me, you're not completely alone."

"Yes, I do," she replied softly, "and I couldn't live without him in my life. But Leah, you can become human and grow and have those dreams."

"That's not going to happen anytime soon, you know," I said, giving a derisive snort. Be human, yeah, right.

"Provided you can control your phasing, you can regain your humanity," Rosalie said coolly. "What sets you off, Leah?"

"I think the question to be asked is, 'What doesn't set me off?'" I sighed.

Rosalie smirked. "I guess we'll have to help you get your temper under control. It's going to take a while. If we want to help you within this century, then I suggest we get started."

I was taken aback. "I beg your pardon."

She smiled at me, her golden eyes amused. "Anger management 101, Leah. You _do_ want to be human, don't you?"

"And _you're_ going to help me? Please, Blondie, give me a break."

Surprisingly, she didn't lose her temper or her amusement. "Who else is helping you, Leah?"

"Why are you so interested in me?" I asked her curiously without bothering to answer her question.

She shrugged. "I want to help you, Leah," she told me, "because I've never known anyone who needed it more. I don't have a choice but to stay in this life, and as you told me, I have Emmett. But you, Leah, you _have_ a choice, and I'd be willing to take anyone's help to get the life I wanted. You lost everything in a way that I never did. I'm sorry for what you lost-"

I snarled at her, ready to phase, but her next words stopped me.

"- but you've made it through, and you've almost come to terms with who you are. You just need help to get to the next stage, and live the life you were meant to live. I want to help you, I _need _ to help you in a way that you can't really understand."

Looking at her, though, I suddenly felt sure that I _did _ understand. "I get it," I told her, as she stopped in her tracks to face me. I felt hope rising within me. Perhaps I did have a chance after all. "You want to help me because this way at least one of us gets to live that life."

"Yes," she said. "Take the chance, Leah. Learn to live again, enjoy your life, and everything you have. It's something I've only started doing since Bella came to live with us. I know you don't like her, and I have to admit that she's not my favorite person either, but I learned something from her. If you have a chance for something special, you should go after it with everything you have."

She smiled at me, and her excitement drew me in. I held out my hand, and she took it. We were friends and always would be. Our shared pain had drawn us together and made us friends for life.

"You know, you never did answer my question as to why you suddenly asked if I were allergic to beauty products," I said casually.

She raised a brow. "It caught your attention, didn't it?"

"True."

She grinned at me, then slowly started backing up. "Although you could use some help on that front," she said cheerfully, just before she closed the door of the garage (reinforced to keep our vampires and werewolves). "You really need my help, Leah!"

I growled at her. Anger management. Right. Getting right on that.


	3. Chapter 3

**Disclaimer: I do not own the Twilight series nor any of the characters that appear in the books or the movies. However, I do lay all claim to my original characters (who should appear shortly). **

Chapter Three

Since none of the Cullens apparently had anger issues like mine, we had to do a lot of research on the internet. This was intensely difficult, not to find the information, but the waiting time associated with the process. For supernatural beings such as ourselves, the tortoise-like speed of the connections (and the Cullens had the very latest technology) was exasperating. So far, Wikipedia had been our best friend, but we couldn't find a single original source.

"Not again," groaned Emmett, laying his head down his defeat, before looking back to shake his fist at the monitor. "For heaven's sake, why can't this godforsaken server actually work?"

I smirked. "Looks like you need a course in anger management yourself, bloodsucker."

"Down, doggie," he said absent-mindedly. I hit him on the head, but he just turned around and smiled at me smugly. "Ok, then, let's take this outside."

"No," said Rosalie a little wearily. Emmett's idea of helping me was to make me as angry as possible so that I would fight him. It was, he said, the most therapeutic way of releasing anger. To prove his point, he found research that backed his theory, and presented it to his long-suffering wife. This was the sixteenth time today he had taken up my so-called invitation to fight and Rosalie's patience (never very strong) was wearing thin.

We continued searching. We found an original research paper, but since this led only to the abstract of the paper, we ditched it, and continued the search. Twenty minutes later, Emmett accepted my challenge again, and Rosalie snapped.

The thunk she gave to her husband's head was so loud that Jasper came racing up to see what had caused it. However, Rosalie paid no attention to him. To my intense admiration, she released a torrent of words containing expletives that would put even Paul to blush, delivered threats like a professional assassin (which, when I thought about it, was an apt description, since she had assassinated five men without even a whiff of suspicion from the police, never mind that she was supposedly dead), and literally made the strong Emmett quiver with fright. She then dragged him out of the room, and left me to continue the search on my own.

Jasper and I gave each other sidelong looks and nodded before he grinned and went back downstairs.

Carlisle turned me to meditation techniques that he had acquired over the ages in order to help me control my anger. I had no idea that people apparently had so many ways to breathe. In fact, some of those sages seemed to have turned breathing into a science. My first attempt at one of the yoga breathing techniques had me almost hyper-ventilating until Carlisle stopped laughing and told me that I had to take it slowly.

It took me an extra amount of time of deep breathing before I forgave him for that. But I felt quite virtuous when I recall that I did forgive him.

Clearly, I had improved.

Bella decided that the best way _she_ could help me was to use my intense irritation at her. She would show up at random times of the day, and together with Renesmee, would proceed to provoke me into anger. Strangely, this felt just like another version of Emmett's help, and I told her as much. Her response was to laugh and say, "you need all the help you can get, Leah."

Jasper and Alice would coordinate and set up scenarios that would make me angry and then Edward would take over to help me control it.

"No, you need to tweak it a little more on the nasty side," she said to Jasper as he was controlling the emotion-meter. "Just a little more and – there – it's perfect!"

My role was to resist the change in the emotional climate and keep my calm. However, this often escaped me, and I would pounce on Alice, only to find both Jasper and Edward in the way.

My brothers (Embry, Jacob and Seth) who found this whole exercise hilarious often followed Emmett's direction and taunted me. In fact, when I came to think about it, they all seemed to believe in the method style of anger management. Jack Nicholson had absolutely nothing to the combined efforts of both the vampires and the werewolves.

But the first signs of progress were made only after Rose made the statement that I needed to accept myself.

"You need to accept your werewolf side, Leah," she announced one day, as I panted after trying to resist the climate change and the taunting from all sides. "If you don't accept it, you'll keep seeing it as a … a ..."

"Bugaboo," supplied Alice, who was now doing cartwheels around us. Renesmee watched her with immense delight, and then joined in.

For a moment, Rosalie looked incredulously at her sister for using the absurd word before adopting it into her speech. "Bugaboo," she said precisely, and I laughed out loud. Alice grinned, and then did a whole bunch of jumping somersaults, in which Nessie joined in wholeheartedly.

"What do you mean, accept it?" I asked incredulously. "I am a werewolf, and I know it. What's to accept about it?"

"No, no, I mean, you have to accept it as part of yourself without resisting it so much," said Rosalie earnestly. "When I first became a vampire, I didn't want to drink blood, so I resisted it as much as possible. Finally, I almost succumbed to the bloodlust near a village, so Edward dragged me to one of the wolf sanctuaries to feed. That was when I finally realized that no matter how much I fought, I couldn't go back, I just had to adjust and move on."

I finally realized what she was trying to convey. No matter what I thought, my human side warred with my animal side, constantly trying to gain the upper-hand. That war was the reason I erupted into anger so often.

"I have an idea," said Esme excitedly, her lovely face lit up. Of all the vampires, I liked Esme the best (probably right there alongside Carlisle). She was truly a mother. She had no thought for herself at all. She was always concerned about the problems of others, and tried to help in any way she could. It was she who put a stop when she thought I'd handled enough for a day, and would go out of the way to do my laundry when I couldn't go to my mother's. She cooked as much food as she could to feed me after the anger management exercises. She didn't care that I'd hated her, disrespected her. All she wanted to do was help, and over time, I had grown to like her, too. Not even my own mother (whom I loved dearly), mothered me as did Esme.

When she spoke now, I turned to her. She held up her hands as if to ward off the questions and hastened to explain. "What if we turned the day you became...a werewolf...into a celebration?"

For a moment, I just stared at her. What in the world was she talking about?

"Yes! That's it, Esme!" exclaimed Alice delightedly. Bemused, I turned to her, and saw Edward nodding, smiling widely. "It will work perfectly."

"Mind letting us non-gifted folk in?" drawled Rosalie.

"Never mind, you'll see what it is for yourselves. Come on, Rose, we've got to plan this. All of you, inside immediately. Edward, go for a run with Leah, you'll hear the plans I'm sure." As I watched in shock, petite Alice managed to rope in everyone, including my pack brothers, into the house, while despatching me and Edward to the woods. In less than a minute, only the two of us were left staring at the empty grounds. The rest had disappeared.

I turned my eye on Edward. "What was that?" I gestured wildly to the house.

Edward just grinned. "You'll find out," he told me patronizingly. "Besides, Alice is threatening me with all kinds of things if I tell you. Sorry, Leah. You'll find out soon, I promise."

I couldn't get anymore out of him than that.

One week later, on the day I had turned into a werewolf, I found out what they had planned.

I woke up to a god-awful yowling taking place beneath my window by all my pack-brothers, and when I snatched up a pitcher of water to chuck at their heads, they immediately straightened up.

"Finally, you woke up," said Jacob. Then, seeing me lean back to chuck the pitcher at them, he held up his hands placatingly. "Come on down, we've got something for you." Seeing my reluctance to dispense with my weapon, he grinned maddeningly. "Come on, Leah, we had to wake you up somehow. Since none of us wanted to come in your room, this was the best way."

It was unfortunate that Jacob had learned that his smile worked wonders on females of any species. I blamed this entirely on Bella and Nessie. I found my mad going away, despite my best efforts to hang on to it, and smiled back down. The rest of the pack let out a collective sigh of relief.

This made me grin even more, and I got dressed hurriedly and went down.

It was start of one of the best days of my life since I had turned into a werewolf. The guys fell over themselves to be nice to me. We had a great breakfast at Charlie's house (my mom and Charlie had gotten married, much to mine and Bella's relief), and went into town and had a blast shooting paintballs at each other. We turned up at the Cullens, covered in gobs of paint, where Esme refused to let us into the house. This provided Emmett, Jasper and Edward (it was a marvellously sunny day, so they couldn't come to the paintball fest themselves) with the opportunity to hose us all down.

We all then had a race through the forest, all the way to the Canadian border and back, during which I didn't hear even one provoking word or thought.

When we got back, the day had become cloudy enough so that the female vampires, who had by now, adopted me as one of their own, carried me off to a day spa where they had booked me for a full session with the works. It was a long, long time since I'd felt so pampered, and I enjoyed the luxury of it thoroughly. Just before I was ready to walk out, Rosalie showed up with a garment bag and ordered me to change, and then accompanied me into the bathroom where she proceeded to brandish various, long-forgotten, make-up tools at me.

When I finally walked out of the spa, it was twilight, and my pack brothers were all waiting for me with Nessie. I got long looks and loud wolf-whistles at my appearance, and Nessie gave me two thumbs-up.

I couldn't help but feel happy.

They then drove me to Seattle, where we dined at one of the most expensive restaurants in the city. Since we were all dressed to the nines, we were ogled at by practically _everyone_ there, the women turning envious looks on me and Nessie, and the men doing the same to the guys. The maitre'd led us into a private room. When I squawked at the prices on the menu, Nessie rolled her eyes impatiently, and tugged the menu out of my hands, and ordered for me.

Of course, I had, at various times of the day, pleaded with them to explain what was going on, but one and all, they had refused to tell me. It wasn't until we had finished dinner, and were waiting for dessert, that Jacob stood up, and we all fell silent. He cleared his throat and Nessie patted him on his hand reasssuringly.

"I'd like to say a few words," he said, raising his champagne flute (yes, we had ordered champagne) in my direction. I stared at him in surprise. It was so unlike Jake to make such gestures. He cleared his throat again and started. "I would like you all to raise your glasses to Leah and wish her a Happy Werewolf Day."

I stared at him with my mouth hanging open. What in the world was he talking about?

Jacob went on, talking to me directly. "Leah, I know you've had a hard time adjusting to this life. I also know that we haven't made it easy for you. We just want to let you know that we're always on your side, and we want you in our pack."

At his words, I felt tears stinging my eyes, and blinked them away. Around me, I could see all my pack-brothers nodding, and I was touched. Jacob continued to speak: "I want to thank you for being on my side when I needed you. You're the best second an alpha could ask for-" he grinned in my direction "- and it doesn't hurt that you're easy on the eyes either."

"Hear, hear," said the boys laughing. Where, a few months ago, I would have hit them for the idea, I merely rolled my eyes and grinned back at Jacob.

"Today is the first celebration of a day that we want you to celebrate for the rest of your life," Jacob said seriously. He gestured to all the guys, and they all stood up, and held out their glasses.

And then I finally understood. All those activities we'd had together, both in wolf form and out, had been to show me that it was possible to enjoy both sides of myself. It was all to help me accept myself. For a moment, I sat there, unable to believe that every single one of them (the vampires included) were trying so hard to help me.

Unsteadily, I got up, and held out my glass, and we clinked our glasses together in one perfect moment. As the champagne danced in our flutes, we all broke out into laughter, and from the corner of my eye, I caught sight of a flash. Nessie was taking a photo.

"To Leah," they all chanted. We all drank the champagne, and one by one they all hugged me. With every hug, I felt the bitterness of being unwanted slip away little by little, and tried my best to keep blinking the tears away. My little brother hugged me the longest, and I buried my face in his shirt (how had he gotten so tall, my little Seth?), and raised my eyes to smile at all of them. Although I tried to thank them, I couldn't get my voice to work.

I'd had no idea how much I'd needed them to want me and accept me. I finally felt a part of their group.

Of course, guys being guys, they all blanched when they caught sight of my tear-streaked face, and promptly ragged on each other to give me time to compose myself. Nessie dragged me off to the bathroom to wash my face, and help me restore my make-up.

Later that night, when we returned home, I found all the Cullens had made a special cake for me to cut, and feed. Even they took some, although they all threw it up later. Even my mother was there, her stern face soft with love, laughter and pride. She held me close and told me she was proud of me.

It was as if, in that moment, I was in a different world. I'd never thought to feel like this again. This was what my life was like before. Now, there it was again.

It made all the difference. The anger management seemed to just flow from then on. Somehow I'd mentally accepted myself, accepted vampires and werewolves into my family. We were all one.

And every year, they celebrated werewolf day for me, each year doing something different. I felt my love for them grow every day, even Bella (she was the sister with whom I had the most fights), and as I did, I felt my anger with Sam and Emily and all the others of my old pack, diminish as well.

Of course, I was still quick to anger, but it was less real, and far more for show. Five years later, when we celebrated, they gave me something else. One more step on the Leah Clearwater road to normality.

I was going to Dartmouth on the Esme Camden (one of Esme's old aliases) scholarship for women.

**Author's notes: I hope you guys enjoyed the new chapter! As the beginnning part of the chapter showed, I had to do a bit of research on the internet myself, and finally decided to do my own take on anger management. I didn't want to put too much emphasis on the technicalities but rather, on Leah's reactions. Hopefully, it came off sounding somewhat realistic. I also finally explained the werewolf day that was celebrated at the end of Chapter One. I hope it was worth the wait. **

**Thank you to all the wonderful people who reviewed! You totally made my day. I danced around my flat with joy, read them over about three or four times and went about the rest of the day with a smile on my face. Thank you to: **

**KCrane: Isn't Leah an awesome character? She's so complex, and she's one of the best to play around with on a creative work.  
**

**ShadowCub: Don't worry, Leah will be going away soon and the next chapter will be a completely different setting altogether. Hopefully, the anger management stuff lived up to your expectations. **

**o0FLAM3S0o: Thanks for the reviews on both chapters. I hope you liked the update. **

**I have also started a new story in Greek Mythology under a challenge. If any reader is interested, the details are on my profile. The prompt goes like this: **

"She'd begun thinking about it quite often. What was love, anyway? Surely she should know after having endorsed it for all these millennia. But the more she thought about it, the more she was convinced that she didn't know what it was, and that was unacceptable. Humans begged her for it, and having found it, thanked her for it. Yet, _she_, the divine personification of the concept, had no idea of its meaning. She was going to have to remedy the situation, which was urgent enough to call for immediate attention. Aphrodite was going on a quest for love..."

**The story will be an Aphrodite/Hephaestus story, and if you do take up the challenge, I hope you let me know. Anyone who is interested in Greek mythology is welcome to take up this challenge. **

**Until next time!  
**


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